General Election

About the film

In the run up to the 1945 general election, General Election focuses on the electoral race of one of the 640 local constituencies in Britain - that of Kettering, Northamptonshire.

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Details

• Release year - 1945
• Director - Ronald H. Riley
• Production company - Technique Films
• Cinematographers - Raymond Elton, Henry Hall
• Composer - Hubert Clifford
• Narration - Geoffrey Sumner
• Editor - John Krish
• Sound recording - Edgar Law
• Scenario - Mary Bendetta
• Music played by - London Symphony Orchestra
• Running time (minutes) - 19 mins 03 secs

Original description

How Members of Parliament are elected

'The film shows how the candidates, after completing the necessary formalities, plan their election campaigns with the help of their Agents and go round the district addressing the voters. What happens on Polling Day, how people vote, the precautions for secrecy, the counting of the votes and the declaration of the result are shown in detail. The film was made at Kettering in Northamptonshire during the 1945 election.'

(Films of Britain - British Council Film Department Catalogue - 1947-50)

Did you know?

• Features Gilbert Mitchison, John Dempsey, and John Profumo as themselves - the latter of whom would later become famous for the so-called ‘Profumo Affair’ in 1963, for his affair with Christine Keeler.
• Many of the scenes were re-staged from actual events and occurrences on the election campaign.
• Mr Dempsey, the independent Christian candidate in the film, wrote a letter to the British Council Film Department, bemoaning a film “so evidently biased on behalf of the other two candidates” in which he is “treated as an intruder”.

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